Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/129

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SILVAE, II. i. 177–202

across the Mulvian bridge, while an innocent child is given over to the angry flames, and both by his age and by his beauty wins their tears. Such was Palaemon, when his mother flung herself on him as he lay shipwrecked and cast up from the sea in the Isthmian haven; such too Opheltes, whom the serpent tore as he played in the snake-haunted grass of Lerna, when the greedy fire consumed him.[1]

But lay aside thy fears, and be no more in dread of threatening Death: Cerberus with triple jaws will not bark at him, no Sister[2] will terrify him with flames and towering hydras; nay, even the grim sailor of the greedy boat will draw nearer to the barren shores and fire-scorched bank, that the boy’s embarking may be easy.

What message brings the son of Cyllene,[3] waving a glad wand? Can there be aught of joy in so terrible a time? Well did the lad know the likeness and lofty countenance of noble Blaesus, for often had he seen thee at home twining fresh garlands and pressing that image to thy breast. And when he recognized him among the Ausonian nobles and the lineage of Quirinus pacing the shores of Lethe’s stream, he silently drew near and first walked beside him timidly and plucked at his garment’s edge, then followed him more boldly, for as he more boldly plucked the other spurned him not, but thought him an unknown scion of his house. Soon when he knew that the boy was the darling and favourite of a friend so rare, the solace for his lost Blaesus,[4] he raised him from the ground and fastened him about his mighty

  1. ↑ See Theb. vi. 54 sqq.
  2. ↑ i.e., no Fury. The Furies, often called by Statius “the Sisters,” are represented with torches and snaky hair.
  3. ↑ Mercury, who conducted the souls of the dead to the underworld.
  4. ↑ The points seems to be that the boy himself was “blaesus,” i.e. “stammering,” being still under 12, and was so a consolation to Melior for his friend Blaesus.

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